The Battle Distinguished Cancer Research Award, established in 2007 by the Battle Foundation of Rocky Mount, recognizes exceptional cancer research at the UNC School of Medicine and comes with a $25,000 prize for each awardee. The Battle award fund is a permanent endowment held by The Medical Foundation of North Carolina, Inc. A reception honoring Dr. Campbell will be held in August of this year.

Hyman L. Battle (1896-1972) established The Battle Foundation in 1946. Like his grandfather Kemp Plummer Battle, who was an early president of UNC-Chapel Hill, Hyman was deeply interested in education. - See more at: http://global.unc.edu/news/second-annual-battle-award-recognizes-groundbreaking-cancer-research/#sthash.emj9c7n3.dpuf

Hyman L. Battle (1896-1972) established The Battle Foundation in 1946. Like his grandfather Kemp Plummer Battle, who was an early president of UNC-Chapel Hill, Hyman was deeply interested in education. - See more at: http://global.unc.edu/news/second-annual-battle-award-recognizes-groundbreaking-cancer-research/#sthash.emj9c7n3.dpuf

Hyman L. Battle (1896-1972) established The Battle Foundation in 1946. Like his grandfather Kemp Plummer Battle, who was an early president of UNC-Chapel Hill, Hyman was deeply interested in education. - See more at: http://global.unc.edu/news/second-annual-battle-award-recognizes-groundbreaking-cancer-research/#sthash.emj9c7n3.dpuf

Sharon Campbell is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Campbell received her MS and PhD in Chemistry from Yale University. After postdoctoral training in the departments of Biochemistry and Physics at Brandeis University, she became a research scientist at DuPont Central Research and Development. Her research efforts at DuPont led to solution structure determination of the Ras proto-oncoprotein by NMR spectroscopy. In 1994, she left to DuPont-Merck to become a faculty member at the University of North Carolina. As a junior investigator at UNC, she received both the Jefferson Pilot and Hettleman awards. Her lab studies Ras superfamily GTPases as well as cell adhesion proteins that regulate cellular growth and motility. Her research employs a combination of biochemical, biophysical and structural biology approaches to characterize protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions, elucidate structures and characterize novel mechanisms of regulation. Her structural and mechanistic studies of tumor promoter and tumor suppressor proteins at UNC, have led to the identification of novel effector interactions and post-translational modifications that drive Ras-mediated tumorigenesis, as well delineation of interactions critical for focal adhesion kinase and vinculin-mediated cell motility. Results from her studies on Ras, could provide the break-through to finally developing pharmaceutical targets mutant Ras proteins, which in turn could provide improved treatment of lung, colorectal and pancreatic cancers. She currently consults and works with companies to develop Ras and focal adhesion kinase inhibitors, and is co-organizing a special ASBMB international meeting on Ras and Rho GTPases to be held this month.

Dr. Campbell has been awarded this competitive honor based on her career-long investigation in the fields of signal transduction and biological NMR spectroscopy for cancer research. Her work on the complex structural basis underlying the function of Ras and Ras-related proteins has led to identification of novel effector interactions and post-translational modifications that drive Ras mediated tumorigenesis. These could provide the break-through to finally developing pharmaceutical targets mutant Ras proteins, which in turn could provide improved treatment of lung, colorectal and pancreatic cancers.